Over the course of years, the number of book to movie adaptations have increased significantly, specifically from the young adult genre.
“I think movie producers want to use the storylines that authors created for these books because of the huge fan base that comes along with them,” said senior Iman Fawahl.“The fans are basically guaranteed movie tickets already bought.”
With dedicated, built-in fan bases, it’s no surprise that movies such as “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” had so much hype surrounding them. These movie adaptations give the loyal readers of the books a chance to witness the world and characters in a different light than reading would have provided them with.
“These movies are a great way for readers, like me, to be able to see characters I loved reading about come to life. Sometimes when I finish a novel, I miss the characters. So when I hear about an upcoming film based on the book I get excited because I get to revisit the character again,” said senior Lauren Livengood.
While some fans such as Livengood enjoy these movie adaptations, others do not feel the same.
Senior Elizabeth Guilford said, “Fans of book series have high expectations for series they love. Basically a lot of the time the film completely butcher the books or make unforgivable changes that upset the readers. Sometimes it’s just better to leave a book as a book.”
Of course Guilford’s explanation has reasoning because for readers, one of the most special aspects of reading a book is the imagination they get to use. Sometimes when a book hits the big screen it loses some of that same “spark” that readers loved so much.
That being said, filmmakers continue to buy the rights of a book or book series due to the many cases that have been done right. When the movies have been done well they have provided the makers with a lot of money.
For example, the “Harry Potter” series was definitely a favorite of the fans, so when the last movie “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II” was released it received a worldwide box office of over $1.3 billion.
The craze following “Harry Potter,” “Twilight,” and “The Hunger Games” have only further pushed filmmakers to buy the rights to more books and turn them into films.
“I love the ‘Unwind’ trilogy by Neal Shusterman so much and I just heard that it’s getting turned into a film and I’m just extremely excited,” said sophomore Melissa Schwartz. “I definitely feel like anytime I read a book, when I have the time to, it gets turned into a movie now a days. That’s not a bad thing but I just hope the movies are done right.”
Upcoming fan favorite book to movie adaptations include “Divergent,” “The Maze Runner,” “Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters,” “If I Stay,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” and many more.
